[Ontbirds]Wolfe Island Birds - January 19 & 20

[Patrick Blake]

Greetings ONTBirders,
 
My wife and I birded Wolfe Island over the past weekend; the weather cooperated nicely, except for an initial whiteout snow storm on Saturday morning.  This was our first time birding the Island, and we were greatly impressed with the sheer numbers of raptors.  Here are out totals:
 
Rough-legged Hawks - 18 (14 light morph adults; 4 dark morph adults)
Red-tailed Hawks - 2 (primarily on the east side of the island)
Northern Harriers - 4 (two pairs, both male and female hunting together)
American Kestrels - 5
Tundra Swans - 4 (the water was very choppy on Saturday; Sunday brought subzero temperatures and much of the local shoreline was frozen)
Common Mergansers - 55 (about 10 females along the first ferry dock on the island; we saw two large flocks of strictly male mergansers returning to Kingston on Sunday)
Hooded Mergansers - 3 (1 male, two females)
Common Goldeneyes - 8
Snow Buntings - 20
Horned Larks - 30 (a flock of about 15 or so went about feeding along the driveway of the B&B we stayed at both days)
Bald Eagle - 1 (we saw this single adult soaring over the bay on our way back to Kingston)
Snowy Owl - 1 (female; we also heard reports from other birders that totalled to about 3 birds, but we only saw the one)
Great Horned Owl - 1 (in the woods near Big Sandy Bay)
 
Directions to Wolfe Island:
 
401 to Division Street (exit 617).  Turn right and follow Division to Ontario Street (end of the road about 5km).  Turn L and enter the Kingston Terminal on the right.  The ferry is free to Wolfe Island.
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